Call for an inquiry into WA airline prices

Opposition Leader Mark McGowan wants a parliamentary inquiry to examine why airlines gouge customers flying up and down the WA coast compared to far cheaper prices for doing the same length in the eastern states.

WA Nationals leader Brendon Grylls has committed $100 million for a suite of policies aimed at making airfares affordable, including possibly putting air routes out to tender or subsidising air travel to the north, The Sunday Times newspaper reports.

But Mr McGowan says a subsidy likely to be funded by a "job-killing mining tax", which Mr Grylls wants to introduce, is not the solution because airlines will simply put prices up further, and instead the executives should be held to account through a full inquiry.